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Who is Mohammad Bagheri, Iran's Chief of Staff of the armed forces?
Mohammad Hossein Bagheri has been Iran's Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces since 2016.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday launched ‘Operation Rising Lion’ to “counter the Iranian threat.” The operation included airstrikes on Iran's primary nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz and the nation's ballistic missile program.
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel's history,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video message. "Moments ago Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."
An Israeli security official, speaking to AFP, claimed the strikes "likely eliminated" Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Iran's Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces
"It is likely that the Iranian chief of staff and senior nuclear scientists were eliminated in the initial strike," the official told AFP.
As of now, neither Iran nor Israel has officially confirmed Bagheri’s death.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed after the unit's headquarters in Tehran was hit.
Also Read: Israel strike on Iran live updates: Iran's Revolutionary Guards vow revenge against Israel
Who is Mohammad Hossein Bagheri?
Born Mohammad-Hossein Afshordi around 1958–1960 in Tehran, Bagheri is a senior Iranian military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Since 2016, he has served as the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country's highest military position.
A military intelligence expert, Bagheri joined the IRGC in 1980 and fought in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). He holds a Ph.D. in political geography and is reported to teach at Iran’s Supreme National Defense University.
Bagheri has been sanctioned by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union for human rights violations during the 2022–2023 Mahsa Amini protests.
His elder brother, Hassan Bagheri, was a prominent IRGC commander who was killed during the Iran-Iraq War.
